Chapter 56 Darkness and Catastrophes

  “So, why’d Aunty Lua want y'all out here? Jeremy would’ve done a better job.” Jane said as soon as Shamesh and Clark were both gone. Her shift in speech caught Isaac off guard as she suddenly devolved from non-accented normal Overworld Standard to what was probably her native accent and speech patterns. Her words sounded like they came from a bit further back in her mouth than they had before, like she had just relaxed as soon as it was just her and Isaac and no longer felt like she had to sound ‘proper’.

  “I think there is something that has taken an interest in me, in the Innerworld that is, and for some reason she thought it would be better to throw us at the lich king instead of leaving us in the A.O. of whatever it was.” Isaac explained.

  “What’s that acronym mean?” Jane asked.

  “Area of Operations.” Isaac informed her.

  “Ah, E.Z., Event Zone.” Jane replied. “Continue.”

  Isaac nodded. It was interesting that they had different acronyms for the same thing that didn’t translate exactly. It probably meant that there was some prominent difference in their connotations or original context but Isaac didn’t really feel like giving it more than a passing thought. “That’s it, that’s pretty much all I know.” Isaac told her. “I do know that it’s strong though. At least as strong as Judgment.”

  “To be fair, Jeremy ain’t all that strong.” Jane waved him off. “Though, I guess to you that could still be a bit much. Jeremy would’ve beaten that lich way faster than you three.”

  “Really?” Isaac wondered. “Lenna and I, well, if I’m being honest, mostly just ‘I’, took out Judgment a few levels ago.”

  Jane nodded. “Sure, if you’ve got some kinda super healing, or can keep from dying for a while, I’m sure you could just stab him in the heart and see who fades first.” She very accurately described what had happened. “But imagine if you couldn’t heal at all. Then what?”

  Isaac winced. She was right, anyone who couldn’t heal would be completely screwed trying to fight Judgment. He was an impossible foe. “Actually, I can kinda picture the fight now that you mention it, and it would end up pretty one sided.”

  Jane nodded. “One Hammer of Vengeance against someone like an old lich an’ the battle’s over. Even if he somehow survived, which I think he would ‘cause he survived the ‘Tornado Bomb’, Jeremy doesn’t actually need his real arms for his divine abilities.”

  “Huh?” Isaac wondered.

  Jane smirked. “I once watched him fight a demon, Klein made me babysit him when Jeremy had first ascended, it was intense, man, let me tell you.”

  “Oh?” Isaac asked because he was actually curious, about both the demon and how Judgment beat it.

  “The demon opened with an attack that Jeremy caught in the arm, took the arm clean off and messed his side up pretty good, I thought he was about to get got by a stray mid level demon when I watched it crumple from the returned damage. He got up just in time for a second one to blindside us. He purposefully took the blow in his good arm this time, taking about the same amount of damage as ‘efore, an’ floated up into the air. I was ‘bout to step in but then he summoned a hammer over the head of one of them and grabbed onto a giant sword with arms made of light. He took them both out at the same time and then promptly keeled over.” Jane finished recounting the tale and pulled a canteen out of her Bottomless Bag. “He’s actually got a pretty weak constitution so he croaked before I could both make sure it was safe and get to him with a potion. I probably coulda just rushed to him but I was curious about how long it would take him to either recover or reform once he died.”

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  “That… is quite the interesting first account of Judgment fighting something. His fighting style seems really self-destructive.” Isaac commented.

  “It is.” Jane agreed. “But only against things that he doesn’t understand. Every time he fights something again, he learns from it. Nothing can escape Justice, and Judgment makes sure they meet her.”

  Isaac nodded. “So, let’s say the hammer of judgment thing he does didn’t kill the lich, how do you think the rest of the fight would’ve played out?” Isaac was both honestly curious and had absolutely nothing better to do. He wasn’t about to try to get their gear that was still half buried in ash that was hot enough to melt muscles from bones.

  “The divine sword, probably a few times in a row.” Jane postulated. “He would’ve let the lich take his right arm just to remove the lich’s magical attacks and defenses.”

  “And when the lich enters ‘round two’ and fully heals, he can use the thing he did to me that reapplies the damage he has taken to the one that hit him.” Isaac added.

  “That’s a new move.” Jane commented. “I don’t think he could do that the last time we fought together. I kinda like it. It’ll help make up for his mediocre self healing compared to the ones that specialize in it.”

  “But how would he deal with the last sword, the icy aura, and the Frost Empress Cloak or whatever it was called?” Isaac wondered.

  “Jeremy is a pretty simple creature, he would just wait until his Aura of Judgment crushed the lich into pieces. The weight of your sins keeps growing the longer you fight in it. At the beginning it isn’t a very noticeable increase but after a few minutes, well, you’d need old man Gravity to help you stand.” Jane explained.

  “‘Old Man Gravity’?” Isaac questioned her. “You call everyone else by name, but not him?”

  “I know everybody else good enough to call ‘em by their names.” Jane said with a shake of her head. “That old bastard hardly ever talks and always looks like he’ll forget you ever existed the moment you leave his sight. Somethin’s wrong in his head, I’ll tell you what.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it.” Isaac replied. “Speaking of ancient powers, have you ever seen the Guild Leader fight?”

  Jane nodded. “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen Uncle Gil fight a few times. He’s a dumb brute through and through. All claws and dragon’s breath so close to the enemy he can’t physically miss. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s never fought anything stronger than himself, well, except for maybe Klein. I heard before they became friends they made the planes.” She nodded out in the direction opposite the Altian Mountain Range. “Way back before The Veil.”

  “I feel like I’m finally getting into the lore of the world.” Isaac chuckled. “Like, not just the surface level stuff like the names of the kingdoms and the current geography, the big stuff that makes you wish you were alive back then to see it.”

  Jane laughed. “Oh, I’ve thought about it plenty, I’m not quite that old but I’ve seen the plains evolve over time and that story wouldn’t surprise me if it was true. When I was little, there were more dips and rises across the plains. The winds have leveled ‘em out, that and all the armies marching over ‘em, but it’s definitely gotten flatter over time.”

  Jane had given Isaac a lot to think about and she didn’t seem inclined to continue the conversation on her own so the two just sat in companionable silence for a while. After about five minutes, Jane chuckled. “What?” Isaac wondered with a raised eyebrow.

  “At first, when I got told who I was supposed to pair with, I asked Clark to look into you.” She began. “When he told me that you were going around claiming to be the Demigod of Darkness, and that you’d beaten Jeremy in front of a shit load of people, I thought that maybe Aunty Lua was makin’ me babysit a newbie again.”

  “And, what do you think now?” Isaac couldn’t help but ask.

  “That I was a bit off the mark but on the same target.” Jane told him with a grin. “Yer new, but new to this world, not new to demigodhood, in fact, you ain’t even a demigod.”

  Isaac didn’t reply for a moment before he just smirked and shook his head. “You are right on all accounts.” He confirmed. “You are also a strange one, Jane.” He told her. “At first, you come across as just an explosion maniac but you are actually extremely sharp witted, aren’t you?”

  “Nah, just old, kiddo.” Jane replied with a sagely nod which made Isaac laugh. “But for real, I’m good at seein’ the little things that make up the whole, I kinda struggle with seeing the bigger picture stuff most of the time, that’s why I let Klein and Gil just send me on missions. We all know that they can’t make me do shit if I don’t wanna, and also that I don’t mind havin’ somethin’ specific to do from time to time. That’s why I even got an apprentice, I just get bored easily, and the last time that happened…” She let her voice trail off.

  “What happened?” Isaac wondered.

  “Isaac,” Jane began by saying his name for the first time. His actual name that he had only spoken once which proved that she was just messing with them when she kept ‘forgetting’ their names. “if you become a demigod, don’t ever let your domain control you. Especially people like you and me, Darkness and Catastrophes, those are two things that should never be left to run free.”

  Isaac could feel the weight of whatever thing that she had done settle over them like a lead blanket. “Thanks for the advice, Jane, I won’t forget it.”